Yet another blog called hourback

Regulatory capture is a form of government failure that occurs when a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or political concerns of specialinterest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating.[1] When regulatory capture occurs the interests of firms or political groups are prioritised over the interests of the public, leading to a net loss to society as a whole. Government agencies suffering regulatory capture are called “captured agencies”.

Pete Hoekstra, the man chosen by President Donald Trump to be America’s ambassador to the Netherlands, was busted blatantly lying about his past statements by a Dutch journalist this week. During an interview with Dutch reporter Wouter Zwart, Hoekstra was asked about past statements he’d made in 2015 about Muslims in the Netherlands setting fire to politicians and creating “no-go zones” within cities where Dutch police are too frightened to enter. Hoekstra initially tried to deny ever making…

To people who speak loudly, recognizing capitals and this and that is just fine, mere words. But for people there, on the ground, where the rubber meets the road, there is blood, there is death, there are smells and noise. It’s so easy to simply, casually remark that “the US will now treat this issue this way” and walk away from it. A big, fat bully, knocking things over and instantly forgetting about it.

There is certainly a wonderful metaphor for this but it escapes me at the moment. So I will have to spell it out, painfully.

We’ve been talking about Net Neutrality for a long, long time. But it isn’t just Net Neutrality. It is the principles that are behind Net Neutrality. But that doesn’t matter right now. Right now let’s just use Net Neutrality as an example of something that needs to be championed. Net Neutrality is this fragile thing that has been thrown around and threatened for a long time. And who is in the White House shouldn’t determine whether or not we have Net Neutrality or not. So it should be clear that there is a much larger problem than Net Neutrality.

As long as our *wholly arbitrary*, capitalist, racist, sexist, white supremacist, commercial economic system that benefits only the top 1% keeps running as it has been then we will be forever crying and complaining about Net Neutrality being threatened.

From: Holmes at FFTF <team>
Date: Sun, Oct 15, 2017 at 12:02 PM
Subject: This could be it for net neutrality
To: fightforthefuture

Net neutrality could be gone by the end of this year.

Hi,

We just got word that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is introducing his plan to kill net neutrality within the next few weeks. Then, the final vote will be scheduled—meaning net neutrality could be gone by the end of this year.

We’ve been calling on Congress to step in and stop the FCC for months but now time is running out! Our only chance at saving net neutrality is to deluge Congress with thousands of phone calls so they have the political cover they need to tell Pai to back off now.

We have to act fast so Congress stops Pai before he releases his plan. We know we can make this happen, so we’re launching an epic “Call for Net Neutrality” campaign to have every lawmaker’s phones ringing off the hook.

We’ve even built a “Call Congress” tool that can facilitate hundreds of thousands of calls and even build a team of daily callers—but it’s not free, and we need to make sure we can keep it running for the next few weeks.

Virtually everyone uses the Internet every day—for school, work, entertainment, or to stay in touch with friends and family. That’s why Americans from across the political spectrum agree that big cable companies should not control what we see and do online, or be able to slow down apps and websites unless we pay an extra fee.

We’re also hearing that MANY members of Congress would oppose the FCC’s plan if they were getting a substantial number of calls from constituents on this issue. We can make that happen.

Our nation’s challenging political climate has made it difficult to focus the public on just how much of a crisis losing net neutrality will be—but we do know how to capture people’s attention and drive calls to Congress. With your help, we can flood Congress with calls, force them to listen to us, and save the Internet!

Congress can put the brakes on Pai and Big Cable’s dangerous plan. They have oversight authority over the FCC, and they don’t want to be saddled with breaking the Internet (especially ahead of an important election year).